Direct methanol fuel cells have become extremely promising as a power source for use in portable electric and electronic appliances. The basic technology described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,599,638 describes the use of the direct methanol fuel cell, which generates power from methanol by removing protons directly from the methanol. This operates without using liquid acid or a reformer, and has many benefits including a biorenewable fuel source, and virtually no undesired pollutants as output.
One of the applications of such a fuel cell is for use in powering portable electronic equipment, such as laptop computers and cellular telephones and the like. When used in this way, it is predicted that the methanol would be supplied for the user in cartridges which could be inserted into the electronic device, and used to power the electronic device. When the cartridge is empty, the cartridge is replaced with a new cartridge, typically a cartridge which is readily available. In this way, the user can use the cartridges in place of batteries.
However, unlike disposable batteries, the cartridges produce relatively few pollutants. In addition, the expectation is that a cartridge of methanol will last many times longer than a battery of comparable size.
There are many issues involved in such a system, and the present application describes technological solutions to a number of these issues.